Reference: Brave New World: Australia 1930s. Edited by Isobel Crombie and Elena Taylor. Published for the exhibition Brave New World: Australia 1930s, The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square, Melbourne, 14 July 2017-15 October 2017. Includes index and list of works. [’Beginning with the Great Depression and ending with the Second World War, the 1930s was characterised by both optimism and despair. Brave New World: Australia 1930s presents a fresh look at this turbulent decade and considers the engagement of artists with the great issues of the time: the Depression and its aftermath; nationalism and the body culture movement; growing calls for Indigenous rights; the celebration of technological progress, and its antithesis in the nostalgia for pastoralism; the ‘new woman’; and increasing anxiety at the possibility of another world war.
Includes works by Albert Tucker, Percy Leason, Daniel Vassilieff, Noel Counihan, Max Dupain, Dorothy Thornhill, Fred Ward, Sybil Craig, William Ricketts, Margaret Preston, Arthur Murch, Elioth Gruner, Freda Robertshaw, Albert Namatjira, Lionel Lindsay et al
Featuring thematic essays by Essays by Charles Pickett, Caroline Butler-Bowdon, Paola Di Trocchio, Peter Sheridan, John McPhee, Isobel Crombie, Rachel Fensham, Jeanette Hoorn, Ian McLean, Myles Russell-Cook, Elena Taylor. Brave New World considers a broad range of artistic production – painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, decorative arts, fashion, architecture, commercial art, dance, film and design – to show the rich diversity of this fascinating and contested decade.’]
[’The 1930s was a turbulent time in Australia’s history. During this decade major world events, including the Depression and the rise of totalitarian regimes in Europe, shaped our nation’s evolving sense of identity. In the arts, progressive ideas jostled with reactionary positions, and artists brought substantial creative efforts to bear in articulating the pressing concerns of the period. Brave New World: Australia 1930s encompasses the multitude of artistic styles, both advanced and conservative, which were practised during the 1930s. Included are commercial art, architecture, fashion, industrial design, film and dance to present a complete picture of this dynamic time. The exhibition charts the themes of celebrating technological progress and its antithesis in the nostalgia for pastoralism; the emergence of the ‘New Woman’ and consumerism; nationalism and the body culture movement; the increasing interest in Indigenous art against a backdrop of the government policy of assimilation and mounting calls for Indigenous rights; the devastating effects of the Depression and the rise of radical politics; and the arrival of European refugees and the increasing anxiety at the impending threat of the Second World War. Brave New World: Australia 1930s presents a fresh perspective on the extraordinary 1930s, revealing some of the social and political concerns that were pertinent then and remain so today. (This book was published to accompany an exhibition.)’]
Publishing details: National Gallery of Victoria, 2017,
Hardback, 212 pages
Fully illustrated in colour
Location: 0